This sentence illustrates the criteria taken into consideration when the founders were choosing the site of the university. The reason this is interesting to me is that theses criteria clearly reflects the social context at that time, which is so different from what we have now. The change and difference between social contexts are emphasized in my engagement sessions, Extinction in Art and Literature. One of the important take home messages is the fact that different cultures can perceive the same concept differently during different time periods. This is exactly what is reflected in this sentence, and this whole piece of document. The things that people value 200 years ago are totally based on the social norms, the level of technology available, etc.. For example, the fact that fertility of neighboring country exists as a criterion shows that the society then is far more agrarian than ours today, and that the transportation is not as developed. It is always interesting to see these little differences that symbolizes the huge social change throughout the centuries when reading historical documents.

The amount of slaves are put in juxtaposition with the acres of land and all the other properties that the university owned at that time. However, the slaves have played vital roles in the establishment and operation of the university. The labor and service they provided to the university are all ignored in this report, but I'm glad that UVa is doing something to improve the situation. Last month there was a campus historical trip which I went with my hall mates. It was a very enlightening tour that started this year. Led by a fourth year guide, we visited the West Range and the gardens around the Pavilions, where the slaves who built the schools used to live. We also visited the memorial for the slaves that built the university, carved on a dark metal that lies on the floor on one side of the corridor near Rotunda. The memorial was very hard for passers-by to notice, and I felt really hard to imagine the living environment of the enslaved people hundreds of years ago just by looking at the beautifully decorated gardens today, where nice trees and lawn makes it a great place for parties. I am really glad to hear, at the end of the trip, that the university is going to set up a larger memorial statue on Grounds for the enslaved people that exerted significant impact on the establishment and operation of the university centuries ago, and I believe we should definitely do more to make students remember their contributions. The tour I took and the memorial is only the first steps.